Toto’s hit track “Africa” was released almost four decades ago already, but it’s still a popular tune at events, in nightclubs, and even making its way into rather recent movies (a version of the song appears in the hit DC movie Aquaman released last month). Since its release in 1982, the song has been somewhat of a pop-culture phenomenon, and topped the Billboard charts.
German-Namibian artist Max Siedentopf has decided that the song needs to be eternally honored in the most appropriate place possible. The 27-year-old has created an interesting piece of artwork in the middle of a desert in Namibia, featuring six plinths, each one of which supports a single speaker, all of which are attached to an MP3 player. That MP3 player has just one song loaded on it: “Africa.”
According to a report by CNN , Siedentopf has placed the installation at an “undisclosed location” in the Namib desert, arguing that the reason he doesn’t want to reveal the exact placement is because it’s “like a treasure that only the most loyal of Toto fans can find,” meaning fans will have their work cut out for them if they want to hear Toto’s dulcet tones sounding out across the red dunes of the desert.
He has called the installation “Toto Forever.”
The Namib desert stretches for 1,200 miles in Namibia, and is the oldest desert not only in Africa, but in the world at 55 million years old. Siedentopf “hopes the song will play just as long.”
A Namibian artist has created a sound installation in the coastal Namib Desert that plays Toto’s “Africa” on a continuous loop https://t.co/JVM0y35cr9 pic.twitter.com/ilgTRA7rN8
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) January 14, 2019
Siedentopf has helped it along by plugging the speakers into the sun, leaving them to continuously run on solar power in a place where, let’s face it, the sun is always shining.
“Even though ‘Africa’ by Toto was released 1982 it is still very much present in today’s pop culture and frequently used for memes and even entire Reddit pages are dedicated to the song,” Siedentopf said. “I was very intrigued by this and wanted to pay the song the ultimate homage and physically exhibit ‘Africa’ in Africa.”
Not everyone is happy about the installation.
“Some [Namibians] love it and some say it’s probably the worst sound installation ever. I think that’s a great compliment,” Siedentopf explained.
Siedentopf says his inspiration for the artwork came because he himself couldn’t get the song out of his head, and has personally listened to it over 400 times, per Yahoo .
The song was written by Toto’s late drummer Jeff Porcaro and keyboard player David Paich.
